While far from being a dud, Galaxy S4 didn't launch in an environment without alternatives, some even better. It doesn't want to take chances with its next big product launch slated for fall, the Galaxy Note III. Some of its specifications made it to the web.

Galaxy Note III is designed to be bigger than its predecessor, featuring a 5.99-inch screen that with AMOLED illumination (assuming Samsung has overcome heating issues on larger screens), and full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution. The phablet will feature the same 13-megapixel BSI CMOS primary camera as the Galaxy S 4.

What's under the hood is what has us interested. The Galaxy Note III could provide Samsung with the right device size to deploy its cutting-edge silicon announced this January, at CES. There's talk about the device featuring an Exynos 5 Octa 4+4 core CPU; and Mali 450 eight-core graphics. The custom ASIC will be backed by 3 GB of RAM. Samsung is holding back on 4 GB probably because that could scrape the 32-bit address-space limitation, and there are no accounts of a successful 64-bit Android implementation. It remains to be seen if Samsung dabbles with Android 5.0 "Key Lime Pie," which will be unveiled a little later this month.

Lastly, HTC's pointed attack on the Galaxy S4 has been about how the aluminum body construction of its HTC One trumps the plasticky built of Samsung's device, forcing the company to consider similar metal unibody constructions for its future flagship devices.